Officials have indicated that the deals are similar to incentives granted at
that time. But it is likely that details of the current agreement with the
European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. will remain hidden from the public
eye, at least for a time.

Officials said Monday that if EADS' competitor, Boeing Co., learns anything
about the agreements, it could help the Chicago-based firm rejigger its bid to
take advantage before the July 9 bid deadline.

The 2006 package called for more than $120 million in cash, tax abatements
and other assistance.

"This time they're really serious that we have got to keep Boeing from
knowing what's going on," Neal Wade, head of the Alabama Development Office,
which leads state industrial recruitment, said Monday.

State government also plans to modify its tanker incentive package.

EADS, the parent company of Airbus, is vying with Boeing for a potential $40
billion deal to build aerial refueling tankers for the U.S. Air Force. In an
earlier round of bidding, Northrop Grumman Corp. had been the lead contractor
for the Mobile-based team, planning to militarize a version of the Airbus A330
that EADS would have assembled.

Northrop and EADs won a 179-plane order in 2008, but the deal unraveled under
protest from Boeing. Northrop dropped out after the Air Force reopened the
contract for bidding in February, saying the Air Force's selection criteria were
tilted toward Boeing's smaller KC-767 tanker.

Northrop had complained that Boeing received details of its winning bid, but
that the Pentagon has not given Northrop equal access to Boeing's bid.

Local officials said they would black out portions of the contract with EADS
voted on today. Public discussion could be vague -- a
proposed Mobile City Council resolution mentions no dollar amounts.

A legal ad published June 20 in the Press-Register says that the city plans
to pay EADS North America a total of $10 million in cash, at a rate of $2
million a year for five years. It also says the city will pay the state $1.25
million for soil preparation at the site, and pay one-third of the cost of a
road to the site.

Four years ago, the city planned a total cash outlay of $12.25 million,
according to documents released the day the city approved the deal.

The County Commission placed a legal ad with nearly identical wording. Both
ads say that "the financial incentives are the same as those offered to (EADS)
and to Northrop Grumman."

City Council Attorney Jim Rossler said Monday evening that he was awaiting a
copy of the document to review, so he could advise council members. County
Attorney Jay Ross said he had provided commissioners Mike Dean and Merceria
Ludgood with copies of a draft after the commissioners signed confidentiality
agreements.

A large number of the local and state officials involved have signed such
agreements, saying that they would keep parts the contracts secret.

Some parts of the incentives package have apparently changed. For example,
Wade said Monday that Baldwin County, which had agreed to kick in at least $2.5
million in cash in 2006, is not expected to pay anything this time.

It was not clear Monday whether EADS plans any change in the size of the
proposed $600 million investment or the 1,500 jobs they have said tanker
assembly would create.

"We hope there would be a more significant presence than with Northrop
Grumman," Jones said Monday in a meeting with the Press-Register's editorial
board.

A plan to assemble civilian A330 freighter airplanes was supposed to add 300
jobs to the original deal. Wade said the new agreements that the governments are
finalizing do not include freighter incentives. He said that the company would
be eligible for statutory income and property tax breaks if it pursued the
freighter project.